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Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington (38) watches his team play during their MLB baseball game against the Oakland Athletics at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington on Thursday, June 28, 2012. Texas won the game 7-6.

ARLINGTON — With a manager and seven players headed for the All-Star Game — soon to be eight when Yu Darvish’s international appeal unleashes its voting power — the Rangers are the toast of Major League Baseball.

As the only team to have been to the last two World Series and as the first 50-game winner in 2012, that’s as it should be. For Rangers fans, that just places one more burden on the shoulders of Ron Washington.

His task is not to represent the local club. It’s to win the (choose an expletive here) All-Star Game.

Whether or not it makes sense for World Series home-field advantage to be on the line in a mid-summer exhibition game, it is. And while it’s premature for Washington or his finest players to say much more beyond “if we’re fortunate enough to get to another World Series,” fans already are salivating at thoughts of a third crack at the crown against…

The Washington Nats? The Giants again? The Pittsburgh Pirates?

Doesn’t matter. For now, fans just want to know that Game 1 will be played in Arlington … if, of course, the Rangers should be so fortunate, etc, etc.

You have to like Washington’s chances of coming out a winner against Tony La Russa this time around. It’s just one game, and one hot hitter or one out-of-sync pitcher can change everything, of course. It doesn’t always go to the team with the most talent, although for more than a decade it pretty much did as the AL — with more powerful bats and, generally speaking, the more sought-after free agents — dominated until 2010.

Washington knew he would be blessed with the superior starting lineup, courtesy of the fans’ vote. Thanks to some ballot stuffing by Giants fans, this is about as one-sided as it ever gets in that regard.

Six first-time National Leaguers were voted to start, including San Francisco’s Buster Posey, Melky Cabrera and Pablo Sandoval. The NL’s top slugger, Los Angeles’ Matt Kemp, is injured and unlikely to play. Meanwhile, Washington has the luxury of filling out a lineup card that includes these names — Toronto’s Jose Bautista, Detroit’s Prince Fielder, the Yankees’ Robinson Cano, Curtis Granderson and Derek Jeter, Boston’s David Ortiz and his own Josh Hamilton, Adrian Beltre and Mike Napoli.

That’s why I think the most important thing Washington did Sunday was select these two names: Seattle’s Felix Hernandez and the Rangers’ Joe Nathan.

Actually, Washington’s duties allowed him to choose three pitchers, and he also tagged Matt Harrison for duty. That’s not to minimize or detract the Rangers’ left-hander’s first selection. Harrison deserves to go.

But in choosing Hernandez, the 2010 Cy Young winner and perennial contender for that award, Washington explained it this way:

“I thought it was important to get presence. Big-time pitching,” Washington said. ”Nothing fazes him. Lights on, Felix rises. And the lights will be on.”

As for Nathan, the AL’s biggest task for this summer classic is to find a replacement for Mariano Rivera. The injured Yankee closer — it seems ridiculous to even call him “future Hall of Famer” — has pretty much been available for the ninth inning for the last decade.